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A neat bit of trivia is that Armstrong is making the same pattern today, albeit not in the same colorway. https://retrorenovation.com/2020/03...ater-this-year/
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Jul 13, 2020 07:11
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Venomous spiders are a problem but an excessive number of non-venomous spiders in your house likely will resolve itself as they die/leave for places with more food unless you have an ongoing insect infestation. It's the same with house centipedes, if you have them you probably have pest insects, but the house centipedes are a benefit if anything. If you need to relocate them for the sake of your relationship do so, but please don't kill them.
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Sep 2, 2020 21:11
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No matter who loses, we win!
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Sep 4, 2020 04:10
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Greetings fellow homeowners! DIY Secret Santa signups are now open! https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3941260
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Sep 22, 2020 19:28
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Old basements and crawl spaces were largely designed to dry to the inside. Standing water is a problem but damp soil absent other issues like mold or erosion generally isn’t.
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Dec 27, 2020 00:05
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According to the thread they have one year after the formation of the HOA to opt out, so if they hire an attorney today they'd still be able to get out of it. Still, that sounds like a nightmare situation, HOAs are a blight on property values unless you're boomers selling to other boomers.
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Jan 19, 2021 23:01
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BonerGhost posted:Do we have a decorating thread somewhere? https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3955916&perpage=40&noseen=1
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Jan 31, 2021 20:55
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Enos Cabell posted:too long for a thread title but I like it I made it work
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Feb 3, 2021 03:06
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gay_crimes posted:I'm looking at houses in a historic area, they're beauties from the 1910s-1930s. How much of a total idiot and glutton for punishment am I being as I seriously consider purchasing in this area? Anyone have resources or horror stories to link that will sober me up to reality? What’s your restoration budget? Are they listed historic properties? As for horror stories: my thread, Load-Bearing Macaroni, is a good primer on what can happen if you buy the wrong house.
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Feb 5, 2021 01:42
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gay_crimes posted:Thanks, I'll check it out. I'm not sure how to answer the restoration budget question, I figure that would be part of the overall expense of purchasing a house. I guess I'd estimate up to $30k in the first year, though that number is pure conjecture and just what I imagine without having the experience. So for an idea, our house (a late teens arts and crafts foursquare) cost $22k just to address the worst of the emergent issues before we moved in (sewer lateral, drains, water supply plumbing, roof damage, exterior repointing.) We’re looking at another $40k in structural work over the next five years plus a complete rewire, and all the necessary finish work. Most historic houses where I am that haven’t been flipped still have lots of knob and tube (or if you’re lucky BX wiring) that will need to be replaced at a cost of around $10-15k per story if you’re paying an electrical contractor. In our case we’re acting as the GC on this project which saves some money, and I’m an electrician so I’m doing the rewire myself, but historic houses are a money pit if they haven’t been perfectly and proactively maintained, but if they have been they’re hideously expensive. $30k/yr is on the low end but possible if you’re going to interface directly with the trades and can learn to do some of the work the house is going to need yourself (especially plaster, plaster is hellishly expensive to have done well in the US.) corgski fucked around with this message at 06:16 on Feb 5, 2021 |
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Feb 5, 2021 06:10
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Everywhere I’m taking down large quantities of plaster and lathe here I’m going to be putting up blueboard and skimcoating it. All the look of original plaster with only a third of the hassle.
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Feb 5, 2021 09:15
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My bigger asbestos concern comes from the tiles we unearthed on the kitchen floor that date back to a renovation from the early 50s.
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Feb 5, 2021 19:24
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I should clarify, the entire kitchen subfloor is coming out and being replaced due to severe water damage so covering it up is absolutely not a possibility and the original plaster in this house is horsehair. The only place we’d find asbestos plaster would be in repairs. And judging from the horrible state of the walls, this house hasn’t seen any plaster “repair” attempts beyond a slumlord with a pail of joint compound in the 90s.
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Feb 5, 2021 19:47
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HycoCam posted:...the old ceiling/stuff that explodes into a dust cloud when you try to remove. Tell me about it, when we were house shopping we looked at a midcentury ranch that was a gorgeous time capsule right down to all the original appliances, but between basically the entire house needing asbestos remediation and the electrical being fuses and BX we declined to make an offer. It also doesn’t help that the estate selling it was asking for a “needs paint” price and not an “environmental hazard” price.
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Feb 5, 2021 20:06
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I appreciate this old house window chat. Our house was entirely redone with the cheapest, shittiest white vinyl windows at some point in the past and I’m looking forward to the day I get to rip every last one of them out and put proper dark wood back in. Also compared to most storm window systems the ones for these vinyl windows are just irredeemably terrible. They couldn’t even be bothered to miter the screen frames and fit them together properly and just used brittle plastic clips to hold the screens together. corgski fucked around with this message at 01:11 on Apr 9, 2021 |
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Apr 9, 2021 01:05
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I would recommend using actual fence posts, not those plant hangers and especially not some furring strips. You’ll need something resistant to lateral motion to securely attach the steel guide cables to since those lights strings are, and I cannot emphasize this enough, not designed to be load bearing. I just finished an install on my own deck and in my case I was able to anchor to the fence and awning upright, but lacking that I would use fence posts or hangers designed for the load.  Pardon my lovely wire rope termination, I needed to get a new swaging tool and I used the clamps as a temporary solution until it arrives. corgski fucked around with this message at 15:46 on Apr 10, 2021 |
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Apr 10, 2021 15:40
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falz posted:Is yours attached to the neighbors house or is there a mystery post that I can't see there? There’s one wire between my house and the fence and the other wire picks up on that wire to make a T to the awning. Eventually I’ll do the same again between my house and the closer bit of fence when that lovely awning comes out, to make an H shape basically. Black steel would tend to rust outdoors but you could easily use like 1-1/2” galvanized or aluminum pipe and fittings. I’ve done that for outdoor lighting installs at amphitheaters and bar stages before. Bonus there is you’d be able to mount some outdoor speakers to it too. When I’m back at my computer I’ll sketch up an idea for doing it so you’re blocking as few sight lines as possible. corgski fucked around with this message at 17:59 on Apr 10, 2021 |
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Apr 10, 2021 17:52
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falz posted:Some may work with pvc exhaust but likely less efficient, the one I looked at years ago required some really expensive duct that was stainless and a few layers Just to note, any decent high efficiency tankless made in the past five years or so will work fine with standard PVC venting and at full efficiency. Lower efficiency models may still require specialized vents but at that point you’re losing any possible energy savings anyway. We personally have a Navien NPE-240 and the initial outlay was definitely higher than a tank but god it’s nice, and the annual maintenance is just backflushing the heat exchanger once a year with some plastic hose, a pump, and a bucket.
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Apr 24, 2021 16:53
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PC Load Lead
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Apr 29, 2021 20:37
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I'm biased against range hood microwaves in general but if you want a convection oven, lots of ranges have that feature too and are better sized to make use of it than a microwave. Personally the only thing I've noticed about my smaller countertop microwave that's mildly annoying is that my large plates don't fit in it. But it's not annoying enough to make me want to get a behemoth of a microwave I'd barely use.
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Apr 30, 2021 18:30
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His Divine Shadow posted:Unbeliavble to me that anyone would want forced air over radiators, especially if it's already got them installed. I agree, your first winter with radiators you'll realize just how unpleasant forced air is. For cooling I'm looking into minisplits myself, we have six non-contiguous rooms that need cooling spread across three floors, so I'm sure it won't be cheap but still an order of magnitude better than retrofitting ductwork into a house from the 20s.
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May 8, 2021 20:12
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just another posted:How destructive a reno is it to install radiant heating if you're on forced air? Depends on the layout of the house, but generally a lot less destructive than going the other way, especially now that new hot water systems are using pex-al-pex home run to manifolds rather than rigid pipe.
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May 9, 2021 17:18
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Three new reinforced concrete footers and steel columns in my basement was $2100 for the contractor, $750 for the stamped drawings, and $200-ish for the permit. We also got a deal because the contractor had a much larger job around the corner and we told him to do it whenever he had downtime over there.
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May 25, 2021 05:54
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armorer posted:Y'all are crazy. I switched my kitchen, dining room, and office to Phillips daylight leds and it is a thousand times better than the Cree warm whites that were there before. Oh god my day job literally involves lighting and the only time I try to mimic commercial 5000k lightbulbs is when I want something to look harsh and industrial. In my house everything is 3000k except for the basement which is 4000k. I will say that warm white aka 2700k is annoyingly yellow a lot of the time.
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Jun 22, 2021 00:19
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Wallet posted:Every single bulb in my house is 5000k. Why would I want everything I own washed in the warm glow of piss colored lighting? If your house looks industrial with neutral lights it's because you've painted and decorated it poorly. If you like it more power to you. But, to me it’s like aesthetic minimalism. You can do it well if you’re talented or wealthy but there’s a lot more ways to do it poorly. For general household use I’d never install or recommend daylight lamps. 3000k is an improvement over incandescent yellow without having that garish tint that higher color temperature light sources have.
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Jun 22, 2021 00:57
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So what’s your favorite way to remove a decade of cat stink from the floor of a house besides setting it on fire and calling servpro? Right now I have full strength enzymatic digester down and I’m preparing to gut that corner of the room down to the studs and joists, but I would love to not have to do that step right away.
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Jun 22, 2021 01:21
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Wallet posted:The enzyme stuff for cat piss that sort of smells like bananas seemed to work okay back when I had a cat that liked to pee on things but I don't remember what it was called. I found this stuff to work alright for non cat-piss smells so maybe it would work for cat piss also? That's good to know! Right now I have this stuff down which was recommended to me a while back when I had to clean out a basement that had become a critter graveyard. It has instructions for treating everything from bathrooms to grease traps.  https://smile.amazon.com/Nilodor-128-ZYM-Original-Digester/dp/B0113ZHYYK/
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Jun 22, 2021 03:00
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Wallet posted:Here's my living room in terrifying industrial 5000k. It's not really minimal and I don't think it feels like either of those things but It works because it's not minimal at all. Blueish-white and hot pink is a combination that works really well together, and your walls warm the room significantly. I don't think that room would feel stuffy with 3000k either but the 5000k definitely makes it pop.
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Jun 22, 2021 04:23
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What are the goon favorite dishwashers? If I can't get our cheap builder grade frigidaire to stop leaking I'm going to need to replace it and when I do I want it to be the best drat dishwasher I can afford.
corgski fucked around with this message at 03:21 on Jun 26, 2021 |
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Jun 26, 2021 02:36
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Right, Bob mini dishwasher it is then  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVup5ya0WVQ Oh wait you said Bosch my mistake they both start the same
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Jun 26, 2021 04:47
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What should the washing machine cult be, front loaders vs top loaders?
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Jul 1, 2021 02:48
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I'm strongly in favor of more house/apartment project threads, not every thread has to be people with falling down historic houses doing major renovation.
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Jul 2, 2021 21:05
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If you have enough money to build a new house on the property after closing go for it.
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Jul 25, 2021 21:27
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QuarkJets posted:I'm not knowledgeable enough to know how serious this kind of problem could be. You heard about that condo in Miami?
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Jul 25, 2021 23:17
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Motronic posted:Yep, been in too many places where things were redone or "adjusted" over the years because someone was too cheap to throw a couple of lally columns in the basement. Then a simple repair turns into a bunch of finishes that are totally screwed and a bunch of doors that now have an angled cut underneath them. Yeah that’s going to be our entire house after we get it jacked and leveled. We’re resigned to making a bunch of reproduction trim and doors but thankfully there are several cabinetmakers in my family. It’s not a job for a novice and it’s barely a job for me.
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Jul 25, 2021 23:25
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I am definitely interested in this old window information. All of our original windows were replaced with garbage vinyl inserts and while my father has a good handle on how to make new wood framed windows for the house in the general sense, how to make these replacement windows airtight is something I don’t have at least.
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Jul 26, 2021 03:39
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When vinyl insert windows fail the day after their ten year warranty is up you’re replacing the entire unit instead of just reglazing a pane. They also tend to interfere with window units if you rely on those for cooling. But if you want cheap and zero maintenance for those ten years and don’t mind the aesthetics, go for it. Personally I hate them.
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Jul 27, 2021 00:22
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I would be shocked if standard cat6 run in the same stud bay as modern electrical over a single story would result in enough interference to drop your speeds below gigabit. If you’re really concerned however or if you’re planning on running 10G then buy some fiber and media converters for either end and you’ll literally never have to worry about it.
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Aug 4, 2021 09:21
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Steel wool isn't going to catch at residential hydronic heat temperatures. You need to get it to several hundred degrees Celsius for it to autoignite or expose it to flames or sparks.
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Aug 8, 2021 21:41
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Queen Victorian posted:I am become Previous Owner, the destroyer of houses. Damnit the current thread title’s only had a few days
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Aug 9, 2021 06:07
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